


So This Is the New Year

by hilarycantdraw



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-27
Updated: 2015-09-27
Packaged: 2018-04-23 13:51:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 691
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4879294
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hilarycantdraw/pseuds/hilarycantdraw
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A short vignette that takes place on New Year's Eve 1978.</p>
            </blockquote>





	So This Is the New Year

**Author's Note:**

> _inspired by[this song](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EY5GIRqcYoc)_

  
It had been less than a year since they’d left Hogwarts, but already they all felt far too old from joining a war when they should have been enjoying the carefree selfishness and freedom of late youth. they should have been travelling, fumbling toward an expansive, bright future, spending lazy weekends wandering unfamiliar cities. They shouldn’t have had the fate of a world they’d barely had the chance to experience resting heavy on their shoulders.

Tonight, though, they were doing a decent job of pretending. Pretending that there was no war, that the year they were ushering in was sprawling invitingly in front of them, glittering and bright, brimming with possibilities and potential. 

The party had spilled out onto the Longbottom’s front lawn. Frank and Alice, two of the Order caught between the wizened older members and these almost impossibly young new recruits, had offered to host this New Year’s Eve gathering, as they were all too aware that this could be the only year that they’d all spend the holiday together. Their garden was currently being used to set off a rather impressive fireworks display, which they watched with entwined arms, wondering if they’d ever have another night like this. 

Sirius was setting the fireworks off. The war had heightened his recklessness, ridding him of what little regard for personal safety he’d had. Gideon and Fabian, who had brought the fireworks, were egging him on to charm the fireworks to go off faster, louder, more vibrantly. Flushed with a mixture of firewhiskey, champagne, and cold, he looked inhumanly handsome and full of life, madly grinning as he put on his show. 

Marlene, Caradoc, and Dorcas were sitting on the frozen ground, cold seeping through their best dress clothes as they leaned against each other. Childlike and giddy from the champagne they continued to sip straight from the bottle they passed between them, they clapped and cheered whenever Sirius created a particularly impressive explosion. Overhead, embers rained from the sky like falling stars. The actual stars that dotted the clear night sky looked bleak in comparison to the bursts of flame as Sirius outshined his celestial counterpart. 

Remus hovered nearby. The war was making him more cautious, prone to worrying about his friends. Sirius’ newfound attitude was going to grey his hair even more prematurely than the lycanthropy. His interventions were possibly the only thing that kept all of Sirius’ fingers intact that night. In spite of that, he still grinned up at the light show; it was as beautiful as it was dangerous. 

Peter watched from the sidelines, twitching when the noise got too loud. The war had taken the thrill out of danger, leaving him fidgety and nervous. Desperation pulled at his edges, making him feel like a trapped animal. These days, he felt capable of biting off his own limb to survive. No one else seemed to notice this, though. After all, they were at a rather selfish time in their lives. 

James and Lily only had eyes for each other. Backlit from the warm glow coming from the house, they were dancing a slow, intimate waltz to music that floated out of the open sitting room window, frost covered grass crackling beneath their feet. Ash from the fireworks floated around them, landing in their hair and on their shoulders like unmelting snow. They looked ethereal, James in his best robes and Lily in a cream-colored lace-trimmed cocktail dress that billowed out from her knees when she twirled. Puffs of visible breath mingled and hung in the cold air between them. Anyone who glanced toward them looked quickly away, the moment felt too private, too perfect to watch without feeling a pang of emptiness and envy at how seamlessly they fit together. 

The night- early morning, really- seemed to be encapsulated in an impermeable bubble of magic where nothing bad could touch them and they could stay young and whole and happy, forever protected by the invincibility of youth, as if they could have a thousand more nights like this. It didn’t feel as if the invisible hourglasses of their lives were quickly running out. It felt endless. 


End file.
